[Jukebox-list] Damage to needles playing 78s

[Justin S.]

Aaron, considering the cost of needles for jukes today i think you'll want 
to keep the "rough" vinyl and shellac out of the machines. they will wear 
your needles much quicker. on 78s, if you have a heavy scratch across the 
groove it can catch the tip and pull it from the cantilever. the tips are 
just cemented on. i've seen this happen when customers head out to the 
fleamarket to buy 78s for their jukes. justin

Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:37:24 GMT
From: "Aaron Heverin" <aaron at vertasource.com>
Subject: [Jukebox-list] Damage to needles playing 78s
To: <jukebox-list at lists.netlojix.com>
Message-ID: <200703151337202.SM02932@[192.168.1.206]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Speaking of putting new 78s into my jukeboxes, I'd like to put out a
question regarding needle wear and tear. It's been bugging me now for
quite some time especially when it comes to playing valuable records -
both financially and musically valuable.

With all of the 78s jukeboxes that we have, I think the general
consensus is that when we restore or somewhat "modernize" the antique
Wurlitzers, Seeburgs, and Rock-Olas - we replace the ancient 2 pound
ceramic original cartridges with newer light-weight versions - such as
the Astatic 51 series. Of course, we do modifications to the tone-arm so
that they track lighter...but that's another story. The bottom line is
that we put a new cart into the tone-arm so there's supposedly less wear
and tear on the records we play...BUT....

I recently bought out a collection of 78s from a local antique dealer. I
got close to 500 records and paid something like $30 for all of them. It
turns out that there were some really incredible R & B, country, jazz,
and late 20s music in there. ALL of which would be perfect for my jukes.
Of course, there was the obligatory Dinah Shore, Vaughn Monroe,  Eddy
Howard, and Guy Lombardo...but those will wind up as targets for my
son's BB gun (unless someone wants them....you can HAVE them...just pay
shipping). A couple of the R & B records were well loved. One of which
is a copy of "The Deacon Moves In" by Little Esther with The Dominoes on
Federal. It's a really incredible record, but you can tell that it was
seriously abused by some kids who played it on a Victrola!! It's got a
few dings in the surface, and the first 20 seconds of the record are
almost inaudible due to some very deep scratches.

Would playing a record in this condition...or ANY other type of 78s that
had a small crack, or some dings and other wear imperfections... do any
damamge to the Astatic needles, or any other type of needle that is used
to play back 78s? I've got some late 20s music that I would love to play
in a jukebox, but some of the grooves have that dull grey powdery look
to them. I also have an Joe Huston record I'd love to play, but it looks
like it was used as a hockey puck. It's plays back fine, but it's REALLY
scratched. How much abuse can the average needle take before you run the
risk of destroying it?

Aaron Heverin

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